In many medical environments, a medical fluid is injected into a patient during diagnosis or treatment. One example is the injection of contrast media into a patient to improve imaging by a diagnostic imaging procedure such as computed tomography (CT), angiographic, magnetic resonance (MR) or ultrasound imaging using a powered fluid injection system.
Various manual and automated injection systems used for performing the above-referenced procedures are known in the art. In the system as disclosed in WO 2004/091688 A2 or WO 2007/033103 A1 the containers from which the fluid for injection is withdrawn have to be prepared for use manually, i.e. manually spiked and manually mounted in withdrawal position after spiking.
A typical procedure how contrast media is prepared, handled, and administered from a multi dose container is described in the following:
The multi dose containers with contrast media are pre-warmed before use via a heater normally positioned near to the diagnostic imaging instrument. Temperature of the heater is set to 37 degrees Celsius the regular body temperature. A container with contrast media is then removed from the heater by a technician. The plastic safety cap is removed from the end of the multi dose containers to expose the rubber seal. A vented spike is connected to the contrast media injector and then manually driven into the rubber seal on the multi dose container by the technician in order to feed the injector line. Due to contamination reasons the spike has to be replaced approximately every 6-8 hours. The multi dose container is then placed in a container holder suspended from an IV pole in a vertical orientation with the container neck end facing downwards. The previously described steps are then repeated for one container of saline. The technician then draws the required contrast media and saline from the multi dose containers into the injector reservoirs via the injector user interface. Protective packaging from a new patient connection tube with cannula connection is removed. A cap used to plug the connector of the injector patient supply line is manually removed. The patient connection tube and patient supply line are connected via cannula connection. Air is then expelled from the tubes by the technician manually activating the injector which then pumps both saline and contrast media into a bin. The technician examines the tubes by eye to ascertain when the lines are purged and subsequently ceases the injector pump. The packaging from a new cannula connector is then removed and the connector attached to the end of the patient tube.
The manual procedure described above is costly and not very efficient, such that it is an object of the present disclosure to achieve a higher degree of automation. The multiple drug injection apparatus disclosed in WO 2008/076631 A2 shows a somewhat higher degree of automation.
However a mere automation poses additional problems. With a multi-dose-container it is always an issue that the container is used beyond the recommended in-use time or that the containers, which had been de-spiked before, are re-used.
Therefore it is desirable to have a fluid management system that is safe and efficacious to use. In particular, it is desirable to have a system accurately and precisely control the fluid containers and the withdrawal of fluid. It is also essential that the fluid supply remains contamination-free during the whole in-use time of a container.
In addition, it is desirable to have a fluid management system that is capable of using a variety of fluids, such as contrast media, saline, flushing fluids and of container sizes.